Puhsedout students in Birmingham: Article #06

[Anne Nonniemouse <ShopMathEdu@AOL.COM>]

Dear Fair Test folks:
I posted to this list the comments which I sent to the newspaper.  Below, is 
the bare bones version which they printed.  Its noteworthy that when they 
slander the students as hooligans, we get no opportunity  to respond.  When 
we write about the worth and potential of the students, the newspaper holds 
the article for several days and allows the opposition is to have equal time. 
 That's democracy in Alabama for ya!
If you were a neutral party reading this article, what would you make of it?
Thanks to one and all for your suggestions and advice.
Warmest greetings,
Steve Orel
=================================
Accounts of Woodlawn students conflict 
By EVAN WOODBERY and ELAINE WITT 
BIRMINGHAM POST-HERALD 
One is learning to design Web sites. 
Others are getting library cards and registering to vote. 

According to their teacher, Steve Orel, they are exactly the type of students 
a teacher would want in class. But the teenagers described above are among 
the 115 who were withdrawn from Woodlawn High School this spring. 

Since news of the withdrawals was made public last week, Birmingham public 
school administrators have said Woodlawn Principal Allen Lewis was right to 
remove the students, who were frequently absent and who have been described 
in some quarters as troublemakers. 

But some critics, like Birmingham school board member Virginia Volker, have 
said that in sending them home, the school system shirked its basic duty to 
educate them. 

It's a disagreement that splits educators: How do schools balance the needs 
of chronically absent or disruptive students with those of the rest of the 
student body? 

As a teacher at an adult education center operated by the Birmingham school 
system, Steve Orel says he has worked with a dozen students who were advised 
to withdraw from Woodlawn High School this spring. 

"There hasn't been any horseplay, let alone a fight," Orel said. "There 
hasn't been any disruption or a lack of respect for the other students, our 
staff or our volunteer tutors." 

His account counters that of some Woodlawn students and teachers, who said 
the school was out of control before Lewis took action. 

Woodlawn science teacher Jessie Sims said the school was dangerous before the 
students were removed. "It was totally chaotic," she said. 

The issue came up last week when Volker alleged that Lewis dropped the 
students from the rolls to boost Woodlawn's scores on state-mandated 
achievement tests, the results of which were to be released today. Three 
Birmingham schools — Ensley, Parker and Woodlawn high schools — have been 
under pressure to improve their Stanford Achievement Test scores or face 
state takeover. 

Lewis and the school system have vehemently denied the accusation, 
maintaining the withdrawals came in the spring — before the test was given — 
because that was when it became obvious that the poor attendance or behavior 
of the students in question was not improving. 

Volker, however, said that after failing to teach the youngsters such basic 
skills as reading, the system was "giving up" on them. 

"I don't want any student thrown away. We don't do it in the Mountain Brook 
system," and it shouldn't be done in Birmingham, she said. 

Alabama native Marva Collins, who has made a career of revamping 
poor-performing schools based on her back-to-the-basics curriculum, said 
students who cause trouble in high school usually aren't adequately prepared 
to tackle the material. 

Collins, an education consultant in Chicago, rejects the idea of labeling 
some as "troubled students." 

"Why is it always troubled students and not troubled systems?" Collins said. 
"They didn't start to cause trouble today. They've been causing trouble for a 
while. They've been in someone's system." 

She said the lack of basic skills like reading and writing leads to problems 
with behavior and absences. Students who can't read hate coming to school, 
where they're lost in the subject matter, she said. 

"I would be 'troubled' if I had to sit and be bored all day," Collins said. 

Woodlawn teacher Linda Tharp said she has had students who had trouble 
reading in her history classes. Such students present a dilemma for high 
school teachers, who generally are trained to teach a specific subject, not 
remedial education. 

As for standardized tests, Collins said they can amount to guessing games for 
students who can't read or write. 

Collins said what all educators know: that schools should have a solid 
curriculum in the early grades so that students don't make it to high school 
without basic abilities. 

But what can the systems do for teenagers who already have passed through 
elementary school without those basic skills? 

Already, the Birmingham schools provide free after-hours tutoring in many 
schools, including Woodlawn. At the beginning of the schoolyear, Lewis 
personally paid for a spaghetti supper for parents so he could tell them what 
he expected in the way of attendance, behavior and academic work. But the 
turnout was low, according to Mallory Coats, area director of high schools, 
who attended the supper. 

Orel said that with help from volunteer tutors the students in his class are 
making strides in basic skills like reading and mathematics. 

"Some school officials and staff have vilified these students," he said. 
"They are teenagers with all the capacity to be mischievous, impetuous, 
generous and loving, as teenagers often are."

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